


The Doctor Meows

by CommanderBayban



Series: Autistic Sixth Doctor [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Autism, Autistic Doctor (Doctor Who), Cats, Echolalia, Gen, Neurodivergent Doctor (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27649492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderBayban/pseuds/CommanderBayban
Summary: The Doctor's echolalia doesn't just extend to words...(Prompt 26—echolalia)
Relationships: Peri Brown & Sixth Doctor
Series: Autistic Sixth Doctor [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003323
Kudos: 14





	The Doctor Meows

“Aww, aren’t you a cute little one? Yes you are, yes you are!” With the tip of his finger, the Doctor scratched underneath the chin of a black kitten who was daintily curled up on a tasseled lime-coloured cushion.

“ _Mew meww_ ,” the kitten said, as she perked up her ears and swished her tiny tail in the air.

Originally, he and Peri were due to meet a friend whom she hadn't seen in "like...forever!", but with a few hours to kill, they found themselves sightseeing around town. On the way to nowhere in particular, they passed by a storefront seemingly advertising whiskers and a little button nose. Obviously this caught the attention of one man, and soon they were like two urchins gazing through the window of a sweet shoppe in hopes that ‘maybe one day they’ll be able to buy the lot’. The place was _chock full_ of cats lounging, jumping, and playing about; and there were customers inside doing much the same thing (save for the jumping bit) _with_ the cats!

_"Cat cafe?"_ The Doctor said, reading the sign to himself, _"Curiouser and curiouser..."_

Of course they went in. Not just for the cats, but also because his unquenchable thirst was beginning to rear its ugly head—an ice cold beverage would do just the trick.

Peri approached the Doctor and his new companion with her hands full and her veins pumping with fruity deliciousness. The condensation from two medium-sized to-go cups filled to the brim with incandescent colour was beginning to drip down her palms. Each cup was topped with a thin plastic covering wherein a thick spiral-patterned straw was jabbed right in the centre.

“Here’s your tea, Doctor,” she said, handing him an orange drink as she sipped on her pink one, “With _extra_ boba.” The contents inside didn't swish as she did so, but that was because it wasn't exactly _tea_ in the traditional herbal-flavoured water sense. They had opted for the thick, cold, slushy version, which was fitting for the day—it brought back memories of late nights after school loitering with friends around a dimly lit 7/11 car park.

“Excuse me, little one!” the Doctor said to the bright-eyed kit, and took his cup from Peri who was now sitting beside him in the window nook. After taking a giant gulp, he made a hum of satisfaction that made his brows shoot up like rockets, “What did you say this was? I think I prefer it flavour over raspberry rapture!”

“The poké ball (whatever that is)—passionfruit, lychee, and coconut.”

“Mm, an interesting yet delightful combination!"

As the Doctor took another couple of swigs, the kitten—miffed by her diverted affection—strutted over to his leg and began to rub her furry cheeks against it. “ _Purr...purr…”_ she mewled, and not a moment later she had taken the liberty of curling herself on his lap like a trained pet, _"You are now under the control of meee!"_

“Aw, isn’t she precious?” Peri chirped, “You know, Doctor, I don’t understand why you won’t just adopt a cat if you love them so much.”

But the Doctor heard not of her question; his undivided attention was now set on the beguiling kit who had shut her eyes and smiled a sly smile as her minion scratched behind her ears. " _Meow_?" He eventually said, in about as solemn of a tone as ever.

Peri scrunched her face and looked at him with a look of pure incredulity, "What?"

“Oh,” he shook his head, "I'm sorry, repeat your question?"

" _I said_ , I don't understand why you won't just adopt—"

"It's all a matter of logistics, Peri, as I've told you many times before..."

~~~~

That night back in the TARDIS, Peri gave a quick courtesy knock on the study door before letting herself in. As expected, the Doctor was winding down with a good book in his favourite recliner. The warm glow of an antique Tiffany lamp, coupled with the mahogany furniture and hand-woven rugs always made her feel like she was eavesdropping on some Victorian bigwig who doubled as a chimneystack. But then she’d remember that no haughty entrepreneur would dare wear clothes that made them reminiscent of a child’s birthday party as they scrutinised the productivity of their assembly workers or argued at board meetings. No, _this_ was still the TARDIS, and _that_ was still the Doctor.

But on the end table beside the colourful magnate were a few strewn pieces of plastic wrappers from his secret chocolate stash (that was obviously in the drawer next to other random knick knacks of dubious use). Maybe he did have a bit of a stake in Ghirardelli?

“Hey, Doctor!" Peri said, skipping up to his seat, "I just listened to a few songs from that band my friend was telling us about earlier: Ashes of Guilt? I think you'd like it; it has the same kinda style as Attitude Distortion's first album!"

Without lifting his eyes from the pages of his reading, the Doctor simply replied, “ _Meow_ ”. It was in such an authentic tone and timbre that Peri darted her eyes in suspicion that a cat had somehow moseyed itself in.

“ _Meooww, meeow…”_ he continued under his breath.

Peri rubbed the back of her neck, “Uhhh...Doctor? What are you doing? You sound like a hurt animal.”

After the third spell of mewing, she was fully convinced the Time Lord was seconds away from transforming into a feline before her very eyes. Soon he'd pounce off his seat to dig his nails into some unsuspecting object, start leaping on tables, and be constantly preening himself!

Oh wait, he already did at least two of those...

The Doctor saying weird things wasn’t anything unusual: his speech was already interspersed with the odd literature quote; foreign phrases; and repeating the same word two, three, four times in a row. But all of these idiosyncrasies had one thing in common—they were _words_. That could be _translated_ or understood by any computer program worth its salt. But here he was speaking in tongues...or _tails._ Were Time Lords susceptible to some kind of strange feline allergy that made them slowly mutate into one? As far as his kind were concerned, anything was possible!

The Doctor used his finger as a makeshift bookmark before closing the novel upon his lap. “I’m sorry, Peri,” he said. “It’s just another bout of echolalia. _Mew…_ Nothing to worry about.”

His companion blinked. And then she recalled the word from the last instance she was confounded by his communication quiddities. Throughout the day, each time she would ask him a question he would reply with seemingly random Italian words. "Yes" was replaced with " _Pronto!_ " and instead of "no" he bellowed " _Quanto costa?!_ " It wasn't until she followed the clues when she realised the chosen terms were snipped from some opera he'd watched the previous night.

_Echolalia_ (or palilalia)—the repetition of words or phrases for reasons such as scripting, stimming, or comprehending what the other person has said.

“Oh, I didn’t realise it extended to animal sounds, too. You must’ve got it from that horde of kittens who were surrounding you at the cafe.”

The Doctor responded with a high-pitched mew that sounded very much like it was meant to be in the affirmative.

“Oookay,” she chuckled, “I think I get it now. You know, it’s actually kinda cute.”

He closed his eyes and shrugged with a simpering grin, “ _Purrr…”_

“Well, I take back what I said about having a cat on board the TARDIS!" Peri said, perching herself on the armrest and giving her friend a couple of light pets on the head, "I should’ve known we already had one!"


End file.
